Gaming machines, such as slot machines, are a cornerstone of the gaming industry. Some known gaming machines include a video display device to display a reel game that includes a plurality of reels, wherein each reel includes a plurality of symbols. During game play, the gaming machine accepts a wager from a player, the player selects one or more paylines, the gaming machine spins the reels, and sequentially stops each reel to display the generated combination of symbols on the reels. The gaming machine then awards the player an award based on the combination of symbols orientated along the selected payline.
Traditionally such machines were mechanical devices where a number of reels marked with a plurality of numbers or symbols could be made to spin randomly by the application of some mechanical input. If the subsequent patterns of numbers or symbols displayed on the reels, when these returned to a rest state, corresponded to predetermined patterns, the machine would provide a prize or payout. Generally such gaming machines have come to be regulated by government authorities as to their number and in the manner in which the machines must return a percentage of the monetary turnover to the players.
The introduction of electronics, computers and electronic graphical displays, has allowed a continual increase in the complexity and variations of gaming machines, games and displays while maintaining the basic concept of the traditional machine. Nevertheless, in some jurisdictions at least, government regulations effectively restrict the degree of variation which may be incorporated in games played on coin-freed machines.
Machines and games therefore that offer novel and stimulating variations on the basic game theme and environment, yet comply with these restrictions are eagerly sought by the gaming industry and there is consequently intense competition between machine manufacturers to innovate.
Games based on simulated rotatable reels typically display a matrix of elements each of which displays a symbol. Predetermined patterns of symbols, if displayed after the reels are spun and come to rest, may then award a prize to the player of the game. Typically also, the symbols are arranged in the elements of a reel so that adjoining elements do not display the same symbol.
An exception to this is found for example in Australian Patent Application No. 2004203045 (Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd), in which arrangements are envisaged where two special symbols may occur adjacent to each other. A similar exception is found in Australian Patent Application No. 2002301067 (Stargames Corporation Limited), in which a specific symbol and the number of its occurrences in the display at the conclusion of a game sequence, is determinant of a win. As indicated in FIG. 2 of the specification, two such symbols may appear in adjoining elements of a reel. Both these examples of the prior art allow for only a single predetermined or special symbol to take up such adjacent positions on a reel.
It is an object of the present invention to address or at least ameliorate some of the above disadvantages.